Reading in March 2011

Hobbit

Hobbit

Cat Wrangler and Reader
Staff member
Joined
Jul 16, 2001
Messages
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This is where you talk to us about your monthly Fantasy and Horror Reads: whether good or bad, we want to discuss with you what you thought.

Our Fantasy Book of the Month is Mythago Wood, by Robert Holdstock. Discuss here.

Our SF Book of the Month is another classic: John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar. Discuss here.

Mark
 
I'm now about halfway through Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor. This is a book set in a post-apocalyptic Africa about a young girl with magical powers -- her mother was raped by a sorcerer from an opposing tribe and she is shunned by her own community. mjollnir posted in another thread a view that this book could be read as heroic fantasy. I didn't get this flavour at first and the book initially reads like literary magic realism. But I now understand where mjollnir was coming from -- the plot is starting to take on a classic heroic quest structure and Okorafor's book should be a pleasure to many fans of genre fantasy. The protagonist Onyesonwu at first struggles to be accepted as an apprentice of the village sorcerer, Master Aro, and the plot has now reached the point at which she must embark on a quest to save the fate of her oppressed people, the Okeke tribe. So far, this is a very good book, but be warned -- it is also very confronting and one of the major themes is sexual violence. There's one scene early in the book that actually induced sympathy pains as I read it.
 
Just about to pick up Last Argument of Kings, probably tonight!
 
Big dilemma here since 3 major books arrived at my house tonight: Naamah's Blessing by J. Carey, The River of Shadows by R. Redick and The Wise Man Fear by P. Rothfuss; since Rothfuss is all the rage now I may read that first, though the Carey book is ultra-tempting since it looks to get back to the exuberance of the first volume rather than the less suited dark of the second, while the Redick one starts also extremely well....

Since Embassytown and White Luck Warrior are announced in the near future and with a chance for The Last Four Things to boot (to be honest if I get this one everything else gets puts aside except Mieville) a dilemma indeed...
 
Just finished reading Erikson's House of Chains. It was good! Looking forward to the rest in the series. I also just finished reading Nocturnes, a collection of short stories by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Soon, my friend will lend me Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell!! So excited!
 
Crono said:
Soon, my friend will lend me Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell!! So excited!
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I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. It seems to be a book that most people fall into the 'love it' or 'hate it' categories.
 
MattNY said:
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. It seems to be a book that most people fall into the 'love it' or 'hate it' categories.
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I'm not normally the kind of person who would "hate it", plus everyone I've talked to has said wonderful things about it. I don't get it until tomorrow! Ahhh the waiting is terrible!!
 
Just finished the first three books in Glen Cook's The Black Company series. Enjoyed them thoroughly, though the ending of White Rose (book 3) was a bit disappointing.

Currently reading All Quiet on the Western Front, which is decidedly not fantasy, but the next few lined up for March are: The Worm Ouroboros, The Princess Bride, the first few books of The Book of the New Sun, Perdido Street Station, The Wise Man's Fear, and Stardust, with a few non-fantasy reads spread between.
 
I, as I imagine a great many other people are, am reading The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. I'm an avid Kindle reader, but I just had to get this book in hardback - although I nearly didn't since I went into the bookshop around 2pm and I couldn't find it anywhere. I eventually asked at the till and they had literally just unpacked it from the lorry!
 
I'm working on The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, which my sister has adamantly recommended to mefor the past several years; but I have Erikson's The Crippled God in my hands at last and this one will probably dominate the next several weeks of my life!

Beyond that, I am patiently looking forward to Wise Man's Fear, as well as White Luck Warrior when it comes out. Definately a bonanza month for fantasy lit! :D

Number Ten Ox
 
Just finished Wintertide by Sullivan, just as good as the previous installments and really looking forward to its conclusion. Now onto Wise Man's Fear by Rothfuss. Been waiting an long time for this one so it will be nice to see how the sequel fairs.
 
Wise Man's Fear arrived today. That said I can't remember Name of the Wind so I'll have to reread that first. Lengthier books aren't holding my attention as much as they used to a few years ago
 
DurzoBlint said:
Just finished Wintertide by Sullivan, just as good as the previous installments and really looking forward to its conclusion. Now onto Wise Man's Fear by Rothfuss. Been waiting an long time for this one so it will be nice to see how the sequel fairs.
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Did you see the news from Sullivan, that he has been picked up by Orbit and the last won't be out until January, and then only paired with Wintertide? I started a thread, and his wife stopped in to paint the whole picture, so just wanted to make sure you heard. Personally I think it is great news for Michael, even if it means waiting and not having a perfect set.

I'm reading WMF right now as well, so far it is fantastic. I'm about a third of the way in and literally had to force myself to stop last night to ensure I got enough sleep to prepare for a pretty important work meeting today. Rothfuss is an amazing author.
 
I started The Wise man Fear and like with Name of the Wind it is very slow and wordy to begin with and all that university stuff reminds me of the academia sub-genre in literary fiction which i got tired of long time ago, so i put it aside for a while since I have two considerably more gripping books, The River of Shadows by R. Redick (tbp April and my top expected traditional fantasy of 2011) and Naamah's Blessing by J. Carey (tbp June and one that starts in the style of book 1 which was un-puttable down).

I will read those two first, and then get back to TWMF later in the year; I expect it will get better based on the enthusiastic talk here and TNoW did so after a very boring 100 pages beginning, but for now those two are much more of interest for me...
 
My last read was The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Hard to believe that book is a debut! Pretty awesome, though not completely free of flaws. Some characters were great, others, not so much. Also, the ending was sort of weak.

Like Suciul said, I'm also a little tired of the academia sub-genre as well, so I'll be looking forward to when the plot moves beyond the University in WMF.

All in all, a solid book. I would recommend this book to most any fantasy fan, but I feel like I'm the last guy on earth to read it, so instead, I'll say thanks to everyone who ever put in a good word for TNotW and eventually convinced me to read it.
 
I've been slogging through The Well of Ascension, the second Mistborn novel by Brandon Sanderson. I liked the first one, but this second one is slooooooow. Hopefully it will pick up soon.

Next up will either be Under the Dome (Stephen King) or Esselmont's Return of the Crimson Guard, to prepare me for Toll the Hounds.

Ken
 
As mentioned despite the hype - and while I believe it will get better and plan to read it soon - I found so far The Wise man's Fear wordy, slow and a bit repetitive, so i put it down and decided to pick one of the other two major 2011 fantasies I have: Naamah's Blessing by J. Carey and The River of Shadows by R. Redick

I actually intended to start the Redick book since it's due sooner in April, but I opened the Naamah novel and literally could not put down until my eyes closed long into the night; I then finished it last night and it was superb, a great trilogy and potentially series ending - though the author left open the possibility of a return to Terre d'Ange.

I put a longer minireview on goodreads and as usual a full one will appear on FBC in due course but I want to say that this book is as good as anything in the series, back to the exuberance of the first volume which suits Morin much more than the darker second one, while the setting matches that with the intrigues of Terre Ange, the vistas of Mexico - Nahuatl - and the jungles of Central and South America and the peaks of the Incas - Quechas - again better suited to Moirin's narration than the dreary steppes of Russia and central Asia and the cold of the Himalayas in the second volume.

So now almost the whole globe is mapped with one moment when Morin and her party sit upon a peak in the Panama Isthmus and contemplate the Pacific epitomizing the huge geographic expansion of the series; great characters that match Morin much better than Bao who now returns to a more supportive role than a main action one though he has his moments too, this time as her husband - and a series ending in great style...
 
After last month's abysmal performance by me, I've left it a few days before picking up a fantasy back, and I picked one up today.

I've started L.E. Modesitt, Jr.'s Imager, and so far it's pretty good. Modesitt, Jr.'s writing style isn't the easiest to get into, but he's been nicely descriptive so far. My only gripe is that the chapter titles could probably benefit from a location along with the date.
 
Finished The Hammer. Pretty slow for the first 300 pages but the last 100 are phenomenal and classic Parker.
 
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